Nonlinear Sciences > Adaptation and Self-Organizing Systems

Abstract: Some of the most pivotal moments in intellectual history occur when a new
ideology sweeps through a society, supplanting an established system of beliefs
in a rapid revolution of thought. Yet in many cases the new ideology is as
extreme as the old. Why is it then that moderate positions so rarely prevail?
Here, in the context of a simple model of opinion spreading, we test seven
plausible strategies for deradicalizing a society and find that only one of
them significantly expands the moderate subpopulation without risking its
extinction in the process.